Beckham insists she's just a normal girl
LOS ANGELES - Victoria Beckham insisted Monday that she's "just a normal girl from London" who happens to be "living quite a surreal life" with her soccer star husband David and their three young boys.
Americans can judge for themselves when the newest British import is seen in a one-hour NBC special, "Victoria Beckham: Coming to America," airing July 16 at 8 p.m.
As if Posh and Becks aren't besieged enough by cameras, the special follows Victoria Beckham as she prepares to move from Europe to the United States for her husband's July 21 debut with the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer.
"It's funny. People really get to see what I'm really like. I have quite a dry sense of humor, which I hope is going to translate to Americans," Beckham said by phone from her London home where boxes were piled up ahead of the family's move Wednesday.
"I'm incredibly blessed and I wanted to show that to everybody."
Beckham called herself "a working mum" who is focused on developing her signature line of clothing, sunglasses and perfume.
"That's my passion and that's what I'm good at," she said.
Beckham said her family was "so excited" about relocating that her boys "actually think they're moving to Disneyland."
The family will make do in a reported $22 million, 13,000-square foot villa in Beverly Hills, where neighbors include Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes.
Beckham described her family life as almost quaint, hanging out at home and watching DVDs.
David Beckham appears briefly in the special, but viewers won't see the couple's three sons — Brooklyn, 9; Romeo, 4; and Cruz, 2 — or their BFFs, Cruise and Holmes.
"We don't ever allow the children to be photographed or filmed. We like them to be normal kids," she said. "I didn't want any of my friends in there, either."
Why not?
"This isn't a reality show, it's a documentary about me," Beckham said. "Anything we do professionally, we try to keep the children out of it. We don't sort of traipse them up and down the red carpet."
Initially, NBC had announced a six-episode series in February that would air during the summer. However, Beckham's shooting time was limited by her spending time in Europe as her husband wound down his playing career there.
So NBC decided it had enough footage to air a one-hour special. Among the executive producers is "American Idol" creator Simon Fuller, who managed the Spice Girls pop group that launched Victoria Beckham to fame.
Beckham did a similar documentary, "Being Victoria Beckham," that aired in Britain in 2002.
If ratings for the special are good, it's possible she could be offered more television work.
"I wouldn't say I'm going to be the next TV star," she said. "We'll see what people make of this."
Other than the recently announced Spice Girls reunion tour, Beckham denied she's planning to resurrect her showbiz career in Los Angeles.
"I'm certainly not using this as a springboard to launch any sort of solo career, you'll be glad to hear," she said.
Citing the 1997 movie "Spice World," which followed members of the pop group, Beckham gave her acting a bad review.
"I really wasn't that good," she said. "I must be the only person in L.A. that doesn't want to be in films."
But she still wants to sing.
The Spice Girls tour is set to open Dec. 7 in Los Angeles, reuniting the five-member girl group that sold millions of records in the 1990s before breaking up in 2001. A greatest hits album with a couple new songs will be out in December. The women now have seven children between them.
"I want my kids to see Mommy on the stage doing what I used to do and I want David to see it again," Beckham said. "David is going to come on tour because it starts when his football ends."
If you think you know Posh from reading the tabloids, she says forget it.
"People can have preconceptions because of the photographs that they see of me, because of some of the stories that they read about me as well," she said. "A lot of the time it couldn't be further from the truth. We're so used to having things written about us that aren't true."
Case in point: Beckham denied an item in Sunday's Los Angeles Times that said her husband gifted her with a $1.8 million diamond-encrusted sex toy when their third son was born.
"I can honestly say that is not true," she said, laughing. "We do buy each other nice things, but it's never as extravagant as people make out."
And she has a warning to paparazzi gearing up to stalk the couple.
"We're going to be quite low-key," she said. "There are people that are much more famous in L.A. than David and myself. We're not out every night. We're probably a lot more boring than people think."
It seems that on the outside Spice Girls are preparing for a joyful tour together following their reunion, but a source claims that there are too many egos at stake to put up a show together without one of them flaking out of the tour.
